


Patience

by bouncycastle



Category: Doom Patrol (TV)
Genre: Bonding, Fluff, Platonic Relationships, Platonic Soulmates, doom patrol tv, larry is autistic, so is rita, they INVENTED platonic soulmates, they bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:55:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21664045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bouncycastle/pseuds/bouncycastle
Summary: Larry was his own kind of person. But so was Rita, so ultimately she really didn't mind.
Relationships: Rita Farr & Larry Trainor, no romo - Relationship, platonically - Relationship
Comments: 3
Kudos: 59





	Patience

Larry was his own kind of person. But so was Rita, so ultimately she really didn't mind.

In the first years, it certainly wasn't easy on them. They weren't easy on each other. Not her, not him. But they weren't easy people and the path was just as complicated, so why expect the present to be anything else but just that? Why expect the future to be anything else but complicated? It was under this premise that Larry Trainor and Rita Farr learned each other. About each other and each other.

The Doom Manor got lonely sometimes. Lonely, and cold, and sometimes even the thought of being touched made both of them shiver in overwhelmed waves so they couldn't even hold each other to keep each other warm. Luckily for them words could warm sometimes if said by the right person. They could also turn the room ice cold again just as easily. Cut like a knife in the air. They both knew and made sure to hold their tongues, at least on a deeper level. 

Larry had a habit of standing in doorways. He couldn't explain why. When asked, he'd say “I don't know.” Rita would often slam into him and it was confusing and slightly unsettling until it wasn't. At first, she wouldn't handle it very well... until she did.

“Larry!”, she'd exclaim, lost in thought and bouncing backwards a few steps, troubled steps quickly returning back to the grace of a Golden Globe nominee, and he'd grunt in response and.. .gracefully and brickfully stay exactly where he was, not moving a single inch. She'd stare at him for a moment, secretly thankful the eye-contact she'd trained herself to make all her life was interrupted by his pitch black sunglasses and therefore not real and unable to hurt either of them.  
She knew he wasn't actually looking at her face but instead focusing on the wall behind her. Sometimes she'd pretend to be hurt about this, just inside her mind, and then she remembered she actually preferred it this way. It was sincere.

“You can't just stand here”, she'd say quietly.  
He grunted in response again and she sighed nearly inaudible. He was still blocking the doorway and seemed far away and overwhelmed. Rita could have chosen to make a scene of it and tell him to move. She knew not to. She wasn't all bad and she was about to prove it to herself. And to him. To the world. Even if she didn't have to because Larry knew already and would she it in his little ways, too. When he watched her movies over and over again and pretend not to know the ending just so she could go back for just a little while. Or when he remembered where she liked to sit in the mornings, mid-days and evenings and why (it was because the light was much better). 

So instead of making too big a deal of it – she hated the fuss, anyway – she nodded slightly and gave him a gentle, small smile. She turned around, but walked slowly, counting her steps, her head tilted down to watch the ground move.

She walked down the hallway and at first she thought he wouldn't follow, so she held her breath for a little bit, but she couldn't help but break out in a smile when she heard this feet shuffle over the floor. Rita sat down on a comfy chair in a different area of the house, one where the light wasn't as nice, and she waited.

Larry appeared in the doorway eventually. It took him a little longer than she expected, but she was happy he came. Sometimes he never even followed after her. It was his choice and she wouldn't force him. He was a little bit like a cat, sometimes, especially when he got overwhelmed like this. They show you affection by not looking at you and simply being in the same room as you. Rita relaxed on her chair and watched out of the corner of her eye as he slowly made his way over. He eventually sat down on the chair next to her that was strategically placed about an arm's length away. It wasn't the first time, after all.  
They sat there in silence for a little bit. They said not a single word, but the quiet was not awkward. His body was incredibly tense still, at first, but after a few minutes of keeping each other company she noticed it fade as he relaxed and stopped clenching his fists. They knew not to make each other talk too much if at all about their problems, so she let it be. Unusual folks they were.

Trust, it was. They could bicker as much as they wanted. In the end they knew what the other needed.  
Rita turned her head eventually and she noticed he was curled up on the chair, but he seemed nowhere near as lost and overwhelmed as before. Of course, it was hard to tell for sure under all these bandages, but after all these years... she just kind of knew. She couldn't explain why. She just did.

Slowly and with care, she extended an arm towards him. He was really exactly an arms length away, just enough for her to carefully touch his shoulder and brush it shortly. He didn't flinch and she liked to imagine he was smiling somewhere under his bandages. The touch lasted no longer than a few seconds, but the fact that he let her and that it felt good made it just as long as it was needed to be. She removed her hand and went back to enjoying the quiet with him, for once.

The Doom Manor got lonely sometimes. Lonely, and cold, and sometimes even the thought of being touched made both of them shiver in overwhelmed waves so they couldn't even hold each other to keep each other warm.  
Sometimes words and sometimes silence made it all so much warmer and less lonely.

**Author's Note:**

> commission for a friend!


End file.
